


Rotting Pines

by Tinyhybrid



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 20:53:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18858913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinyhybrid/pseuds/Tinyhybrid
Summary: An alternate story as to why the Pine’s Twins went to stay with their Grunkle Stanford for the summer. Dipper was diagnosed with Dsythemic disorder and has been sent up to Gravity Falls, Oregon in hopes that the scenery will help him. Stan however dosent pay as much mind to him as he does to Mabel, so Dipper runs off. He finds two things while he’s trying to hide from going back. A mysterious journal all about the oddities in Gravity Falls, and a blonde man who offers him the chance of a life time. Will Dipper agree?





	1. The rotting of a tree

**Author's Note:**

> Hey this is my first work so please tell me about what I can improve on, I know I’m not the best writer but I’ll try!

The leaves fall from a rotting tree just the same as if from a healthy one, no one ever knows that the lighting that struck had caused the tree to eat itself away from the inside out and drain its body of all nutrients. The leaves will still turn orange and fall to the ground to be collected by a rake, and no body will know that the tree won’t live past the winter, for it will rot away and break from the cold. 

“Mason!” A female voice broke through the boy’s thoughts as it shattered the image with its shrill irritation. The Burnett looked back away from the window where they were cutting down the rotten oak and towards his mother. She looked at him with the intensity that Mothers had and then back at the man in front of him. 

She had been called in after someone had posted concerns about Dipper’s yearly physical, the doctor had stated that he wanted to do further testing on Dipper and found the nightmare of a word that now sat on principal’s desk. The file was open to a personal note that said in bold “Dsythemic”. 

Dipper still didn’t understand the severity of the word and instead shifited back to look at the tree again. Remembering how his sister had lost her first tooth by tripping over one of its roots. 

“What did the doctor recommend for him? I’m not going to revert to medication, I know what that stuff does to people!” His mother seemed to snap, her panic showing in the heightened pitch.

”Calm down Mrs. Pines, your son shouldn’t need medication, the Doctor recommended a change of scenery for Mason, send him to a camp over the summer so he’s out of the city.” The principal spoke softly and clearly to calm down the panicked mother before him. 

“Oh, well I know a place then. I’ll send them up to be with their great uncle, that’ll should be a nice safe place for them. She smiled at her son as he continued to watch the rotting tree be cut away.


	2. The journal in the woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper and Mabel have settled in to Grunkle Stan’s home known as the Mystery Shack, a tourist trap with very odd attractions. Dipper begins to feel worse and worse as Mabel easily bounds with their Grunkle, leaving him ignored. So he runs off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok real story time whoop!

The whole house was old and falling apart, it almost seemed as if it had a cold and was trying to recover from it. Odd mixes of taxidermy animals say throughout the lower levels and the main portion of the House was nothing but a store front. 

“Dipper look!” Mabel squealed as she ran into the attic that was made into their bedroom for the summer. She jumped on to the bed and began bouncing happily on it, laughing like a little kid as she fell off and onto the floor. Dipper chuckled and shook his head as he threw his backpack and suitcase onto the bed. He looked down at the ragged old hat he had packed and sighed as he adorned himself with the dirty thing. 

“Think Grunkle Stan will let you buy the blue one from his store?” Mabel asked sweetly. She had watched the way his eyes had scanned the blue pine tree hat that sat in the store below them when they entered the shack. “Probably not, besides it’d be a waste of the limited money mom gave us for important things like food.” He sighed back to her as he unpacked. 

“Well maybe if we can get him to soften up to us then we can get it for you.” Dipper knew it was a lost cause but it was even more of one to try to tell his sister not to hope on something like that. She didn’t need to be worrying about him and a silly hat.

They unpacked their essentials and left many clean clothes still in their place as they got ready to go off and play for a bit. Mabel grabbed onto her brother’s arm and rushed him down stairs so they could play outside, but the were blocked by Stan before Mabel could reach the door handle. 

“Hey I need you two to help me in the store for a bit, Wendy is out sick and Soos has to repair the printer, so I need one of you to run the register and one of you to clean.” Stan said in his gravely voice and handed Dipper the broom he had in his hand. 

So that’s how the rest of the day went, and the rest of the week, Dipper was put to cleaning while Mabel ran the cash register. Each day Dipper looked at the blue hats on the self he got a bit more envious, he already had a good hat he would tell himself, but that didn’t stop the want. 

It was on Friday that things set off on Dipper when Stan allowed Mabel to pick out something from the shop for her good work, of course Mabel picked out something unique and different, a nice grappling hook. And Stan hadn’t even glanced over Dipper. This confused him as he had been working so hard and everything was spotless within the shack.  It wasn’t until later that he realized that it had been because Stan was bonding with Mabel and wasn’t paying as much attention to him, just kept sending him off to work. So he ran. 

Dipper snuck out the back and bolted into the forest, he just kept running and not paying attention to the surroundings until he tripped and went tumbling down a steep hill side. His hat had been lost to the brambles as he rolled down, cutting and bruising himself as he went. Finally it all stopped when he had been slammed against something like a car door. 

Dipper coughed and heaved to try and replenish his buring lungs as they wheezed for oxygen. He looked up and figured he’d see the car he had tumbled into, but instead his cocoa colored eyes met the base of a large cedar. Why had it hurt him like a metal sheet? Dipper began to feel the tree and realized it wasn’t real. He knocked upon it and found a hollow portion in which he figured their might be a door. 

He found a small gap and pried it open, to which there was an odd little machine inside. He looked around and then flicked one of the two switches, the sound of old rusted cogs filled the air as he looked behind in to an opening in the grass. A black box was inside the fresh hole and it seemed worn and rain rotted from years of stress. He pulled it out and opened it to find a torn and weathered old journal inside. It was a dark red color with a brilliant bright gold hand upon its cover, the hand had 6 fingers instead of 5 and had a brilliant 3 printed upon it. 

He turned through the journal till he reached a page that stated to “Trust no one”. Why would it say that? He stood puzzled for a moment then fixed up the tree so no one would know he was there. He walked off to a little stream near by and sat down to read and relax.

An hour or so passed before any sound besides birds or crickets broke his focus. The hard crunching of twigs and leaves under someone’s feet. Dipper got to his feet and looked for a place to hide, but the nearest tree was too skinny and thin. His heart began pounding as he listened to the footsteps growing closer and closer. They were too heavy to be Mabel and too soft to be Stan, so who the hell could it be?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who is it? Who wrote this journal? What’s gonna happen!


	3. In need of a friend?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper is confronted by a man claiming to be able to show him the secrets of the paranormal activity within Gravity Falls, the only catch is, dipper has to help him with his research. But how bad of a trade off is that?

“What is a little boy like you doing in my woods?” The silence of the world was broken by the shrill voice that softly came like nothing more than a snicker from the source of the foot steps. 

From the sound of the almost echoed and distant voice that came from the tree line, Dipper had half expected to see some kind of monsterous creatures waiting for him in the brush. However, instead his eyes met with the form of a very tall man who seemed as old as his mid twenties. The out of place formal etire made the sight even more oddly baffling.

The fluffy golden locks that covered the man’s head seemed to be free of debris, and his pressed yellow overcoat appeared to be clean and very well kept. The only truly unnatural thing about this man, besides the echo to his voice, was his almost amber eyes, one of which was almost covered by the golden blonde hair that fell over it. 

Amongst the soft colors of the evening sun set, this man seemed to glow with a soft golden light. Dipper began to panic as he noticed the shifting of weight from one foot to the next as the man drew closer to him. Dipper looked around quickly for a possible escape but there was nothing, the only thing besides fight as to fall into the stream. 

The man only got closer as he panicked, finally he had gotten the nerve to pick up a rock and throw it at the man in a desperate hope. All his hope was crushed as the golden figure just shifted his head to dodge the pebble. “Not a bad arm.” He smirked at Dipper.

”Now that you’ve had your panic, how about you just calm down, I’m not here to hurt you, more here out of curiosity.” The man said with a soft smile before quickly sitting down onto the dirt beneath him, not bothering to worry about his over coat. Dipper looked down at him questionably and slowly began to sat down in front of the man, at least two feet away from him. “W who are you?” Dipper asked hoarsely as he hugged onto the journal tightly. 

“Not anyone too important, my name is Bill Cipher, and I’ll skip to the main question on your brain and tell you that yes, I do live in these woods.” Bill spoke with a relaxing confidence not often seen in strangers but more with old friends. His voice seemed distant and had a soft echoing behind it. “What’s your name? And what’s a kid like you doing out here?”

Dipper looked down a bit shamefully. “Dipper, I was running from home, just for a bit, just to be alone for a little while is all.” His voice had begun training and getting weak. Not a hint of confidence along his strands of words. 

“Ah, felt unimportant or like you were being ignored there?” Bill began with a soft smile as the boy nodded in agreement with his words. “Well you must be important if you were able to find my old apprentice’s journal.”

Dipper looked up with a mix of confusion and wonder, despite having only just read a few pages within the books confines, he already had begun questioning all of it. “Your apprentice wrote this?” 

“Oh yes, he wrote 3 journals during his time with me, he was young back then and loved to study the magic of the world.” The blonde said as he demonstrated, his hand held out as it ignited with a brilliant blue fire. “Woah!” Dipper crawled over a bit to see it closer. “Humans can be taught magic, but it’s almost impossible without a good teacher to keep you at a steady pace. Unfortunately that’s what happened to my apprentice.” 

Dipper looked up like a child waiting to hear the rest of a fairy tale before bed. Bill chuckled and let his hand burn out. “You see, he thought he had learned enough from me and tried to continue learning on his own, when I tried to stop him, he cast a spell that bound me within this forest, it was such a powerful spell that his body gave out and he passed away from magic strain.” Bill hinted it all with a sadness that humans find to emphasize with. 

Dipper sat back up and looked around, if this man was bound by a spell then their should be a counter spell, right? “Isn’t there a counter spell you could use?” The blonde looked at him blankly when these words were uttered, a sigh escaped the man’s mouth. “Yes, but I can’t utter it, it has to be from a human.”

”Human? What do you mean by that?” Dipper scooted back a bit and looked at Bill deeply, as if trying to pier into the man’s mind. 

“Oh yes, see I’m a creature of the reality plans, a demon if you find that easier. In terms it means I’m just another magical creature of this forest, however I’m much more powerful. I came to this forest years ago to help teach the humans how to use magic so the gift of the paranormal could be used by everyone. Magic is a wonderous thing, but I could never find an apprentice that would listen to me long enough before getting impatient.” Bill spoke quickly and confidently. 

Dipper gazed at the man with wonderment at his words, magic, as a normal everyday thing would be amazing. “So how many apprentices does that mean you’ve had?” He asked in the most polite way he thought he could. 

“Something like maybe 5, the last one was my favorite though, I called him sixer, he was a very good student. But now it seems I either need to give up or find another apprentice to continue working with.” Bill’s voice no longer seemed to echo, instead it was softer. “What’s the terms of an apprenticeship?” The question came out of no where and stunned him a bit. 

Bill began to laugh a bit and evened into a smile. “Kid you must be a genius or have more common sense, you’re the first person to ever ask me that question.” Dipper had a little prideful blush and smile as he was told this. 

“The terms are simple, you never tell anyone about me, you obey me when I tell you not to do something because it might end up being to advanced and you help me with my projects without too much questioning.” Bill explained as he watched the boy note each word. 

“Doesn’t sound too hard, but I’m not too sure if I should take this, I mean, I don’t know if it’s right.” Dipper was trailing off with his words as he was thinking out loud. 

“Well if you want it, think of it like this, it’ll be a way for you to escape from life where you feel ignored, and into a world where it’s only you because you are the only student, the one who gets to be important in your own studies, I’m sure that would be a good stress relief huh? And if it doesn’t sound too blunt, it looks as if you are in need of a friend?” Bill smirked as he watched the golden sunlight fade from the boy’s form. It was getting late, too late. 

“I’ll give you until tomorrow at sun set to decide, for now, go home and think about it, you shouldn’t be out after dark.” Bill said as he got up and began to leave. “Until tomorrow Dipper.” 

And with that, Dipper was alone again with the sounds of the dusk forest around him. The sound of a falling tree broke his thoughts as he decided with the crash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wheww, another chapter done, and a fun one at that. Hopefully this story is getting a bit more enjoyable. Also I hope the tree symbolism isn’t too over bearing.

**Author's Note:**

> I might not be able to work on this as much as I’d like, sadly rn I only have mobile devices to write on so hopefully it’ll work out ok.


End file.
